Hands-On With Overwatch's New Hero Moira - IGN Access

Moira is a strange and unique support hero.

By
Tom Marks

The new Overwatch hero, Moira, is extremely similar to some of the game’s other supports, but also unlike anything I’ve ever played.

She’s a mix of healer and damage dealer that immediately made me think of ana, with a purple and yellow color scheme that’s reminiscent of Zenyatta, but her actual kit sets Moira far apart from the supports before her.

Her heal, Biotic Grasp, is basically a friendly flame thrower that drains her life-saving biotic energy to heal her allies. That energy recharges overtime, but Moira can also fill it back up by using her alternate fire, a damage-dealing lock-on beam which acts a lot like a weaker version of Symmetra’s basic attack but with a much longer range.

Simply put, these basic abilities make Moira one of the strangest heroes in Overwatch. Her heal can be incredibly strong in choke points with grouped up allies, but the limited energy means you can’t just sit back and keep your teammates alive indefinitely. It gives her a different rhythm than the other supports.

Her Fade ability is essentially a fake Blink, turning her invisible and super fast for a short amount of time. It’s not really a positional ability like Sombra’s Translocator as much as a built-in panic button. Moira doesn’t have much self heal, so when she gets in trouble Fade can provide a tricky escape.

Her final basic ability shoots out a bouncing ball that either heals allies or damages enemies, depending on what you choose when you first throw it out. What’s most impressive about the ball is how far it can fly, allowing you to root out snipers or other far off enemies.

I like this ability a lot, because the skill cap for it seems sky high. Firing the ball off randomly likely won’t deal much damage or provide much healing, but bouncing it properly could do loads. If you work with your team to group up in certain chokes or push the enemy team into a small area, the effect is multiplied significantly.

Her ultimate is also a lot of fun, firing a massive beam that doesn’t make you choose between healing and damage. If everything lines up properly, you could heal your entire team while simultaneously shredding the enemy’s with a single ult.

It doesn’t do too much damage, but I like that it rarely feels like an ult that goes to waste. If you pop it and the enemy team scatters, you can at least refocus and start healing your own. And nearly all of Moira’s abilities benefit from grouping up your team, encouraging coordination.

I’m not totally in love with Moira’s general backstory or character design, but I think that might be because I haven’t had the time to get to know her yet. But her kit is strange and unique in the best way, and it will bring interesting new support tools and strategies to play with in Overwatch.

Tom Marks is an Associate Editor focusing on PC gaming at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.